A grotesque, unsettling musical picture of chaos, massacre and lunacy. There were some years since it was released (1980) where I couldnât listen to it at all.
It's maybe the most unlikely opening track of an album I've ever heard (despite Ian Curtis' repeated chorus: "This is the way, step inside"). It's based upon a 1970 J.G. Ballard collection of short stories of the same name, which imagines a name-changing protagonist who creates surrealistic fantasies about celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and President Ronald Reagan.
One of the first times in recorded music (long before bands like R.E.M. made a regular practice of this) where I can recall band members swapping instruments; guitarist Bernard Sumner plays bass on the track, bassist Peter Hook "plays" guitar (it's basically one long, wobbly noise scribble).
Super disturbing. I'm always amazed that the band could even pull off a live performance of it. Impossibly influential; you can hear the outline of the Cure's "Pornography," the Swans' catalogue, and much of whatever became to be called "tribal" in the DNA of this track.
Sep 22, 2024
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From the cover art to the hellacious guitar racket going on atop the track's spooky tribal drums to lyrics that reference "The Atrocity Exhibition" by J.G. Ballard (a controversial and experimental series of "condensed novels" obsessed with modern celebrity at that time -- 1970 -- including chapters about the Kennedys, Ronald Reagan and Marilyn Monroe), I find this completely unsettling and difficult to get through in one sitting. And it's been that way since I first heard it four decades ago. I've often wondered if the late Ian Curtis meant this song to be a commentary on audiences that came to see the band knowing that he could be gripped by one of his epileptic seizures at any point in their performance -- a true "atrocity exhibition."
Apr 27, 2024
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This may not be the first song I remember hearing, but it is one of the first I can recall having a visceral reaction to. My mom was an avid soundtrack collector of her favorite moviesâ The Lost Boys soundtrack often played in my house growing up. One day I was laying on my bed on a dreary afternoon and I remember hearing Jim Morrisonâs voice floating up from the downstairs stereo. As he sang faces look ugly when youâre alone I stared into the small faces of the porcelain dolls on my shelf (that my mom insisted I keep on display even though they always made be slightly uncomfortable) until I imagined their faces warping and bending into strange expressions.
Feb 22, 2025
On this day, all the way back in 1985
Two Scots brothers with wraparound shades, birds-nest hairdos and an affinity for white-noise feedback, American girl groups and the Ramones made a debut album that still ranks among the wildest things Iâve ever heard.
I saw them on an early US tour where the set barely lasted a half hour and guitarist William Reid (one of the two brothers) played in the dark with his back to the audience. âContempt for everyoneâ might be a good descriptor of the bandâs early stage and personal presence.
Legendary. Rediscovered later (around the time they broke up for the first time) via the soundtrack to Sofia Coppolaâs âLost In Translation.â
Nov 18, 2024
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Hey tyler hopefully this doesnât violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I canât wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! â€ïž
Mar 27, 2024
âSongs Of a Lost Worldâ coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 đ€
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
âUnwound is the best band of the â90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesnât say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasnât stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the â90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.â
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really canât say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. đ€
Mar 23, 2024